3D Bonus Shots

Have a new 3D archery range in Southern Illinois and would like to hear from some of you on some neat/clever bonus shots you have seen in your travels. Have had some suggestions already, but am still searching for something that really catches my eye.

Put out a Bionic buck and offer extra points if they make the shot. For those who don't know, a bionic is a steel cut out of a deer with a small foam vital area. Hit anything but the foam, and you trash an arrow.

Put out a Bionic buck and offer extra points if they make the shot. For those who don't know, a bionic is a steel cut out of a deer with a small foam vital area. Hit anything but the foam, and you trash an arrow.

Yeah, kind of like a high risk/high reward challenge...
Our range, that's now closed , had a steel plate with a 3" hole in it with a bag target behind. It was just for fun but when an arrow missed the hole it was pretty funny/loud/scary...

I was at a shoot that had a bear on a cable. The members you were shooting with pulled the line and put the bear at a higher elevation. When they let it go it came through the shooting area at about 10 mph. It was fun trying to time it.

Our 3D shoots were all marked yardages, so people sucked at guessing yardage anyway, BUT there was a one where they had set out a small bear at a long yardage. The terrain they had it set on and the size of the bear made it very decieving.

Our 3D shoots were all marked yardages, so people sucked at guessing yardage anyway, BUT there was a one where they had set out a small bear at a long yardage. The terrain they had it set on and the size of the bear made it very decieving.

Yes, those small McKenzie bears can look HUGE.... It is very deceiving depending on the backdrop behind the bear.

Yes, those small McKenzie bears can look HUGE.... It is very deceiving depending on the backdrop behind the bear.

Ron

I hear you.
I just like having to look for them in out of the way places; that's half the fun of them. The stegosaurus, the skunk, the red frog are a few of my favorites bonus targets. We don't have a carp but there is a pond at our club and I have always thought one of those just at the edge in the water would be good.

I hear you.
I just like having to look for them in out of the way places; that's half the fun of them. The stegosaurus, the skunk, the red frog are a few of my favorites bonus targets. We don't have a carp but there is a pond at our club and I have always thought one of those just at the edge in the water would be good.

We have 2 frogs on a wooden beam that's fastened in the middle to a low RPM electric motor and gear box run by a car battery and a foot switch. You have to sit on a cooler, put your foot on the switch and then shoot 2 arrows, 1 into each frog.

It's hilarious since new people believe these things are 20-30 yards away but they are more like 8-10... There is a bag backstop about 10 yards behind the target to catch the strays.

It's set up like that so kids have a ligitimate shot at them. Everybody shoots from the same location, even trad. Under a certain age I believe that an adult can hold the button and the person can shoot standing up to make it easier and more fair.

Other than the initial distance judging getting the timing is pretty easy because when the vitals appear they are moving toward you for that 1/2 to 3/4 second or so.

I've seen the frog on a float out in a pond. The frog was on a loose tether so it drifted and spun with the wind. It had a pully system to pull the frog in and retrieve your arrow. If you missed, you had to wait for the wind to blow your arrow back to you (if it ever did).

Something I would like to see is the carp with the same type of pully system but have it pull the carp about 2 feet under water to simulate a bow fishing shot.

That look on my face is not concern, its shock at your utter stupidity!

Check out Redneckarcher.com. It's an adult archer/hunting site that feels like hunt camp.

the place we used to shoot at had a big grizzly bear at 75-100 yards with a 100 dollar bill folded to cover the center. it was 5 or 10 bucks a shot if you hit the bill it was yours. all the money went to the club. this was years ago and it was just straight up hunting set-ups.

the place we used to shoot at had a big grizzly bear at 75-100 yards with a 100 dollar bill folded to cover the center. it was 5 or 10 bucks a shot if you hit the bill it was yours. all the money went to the club. this was years ago and it was just straight up hunting set-ups.

We had one like this, they had a bear and an elk. I had to aim at the mountain range in the skyline to even hit the targets

How bout things like: shoot between branches, shoot kneeling or sitting on the ground....

Put out a Bionic buck and offer extra points if they make the shot. For those who don't know, a bionic is a steel cut out of a deer with a small foam vital area. Hit anything but the foam, and you trash an arrow.

And if you didn't hit the target or refused to fire at it (either day...2 days) you got a 30 point penalty on your score.

Some people are just sick. There were 30 targets and 6 of them were arrow eaters if your shot didn't connect. Vital shot for big animals...or hit on small stuff like rabbits. One person I saw went through 8 arrows in 2 days...expensive shoot!

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits" -- Albert Einstein

Shooting rabbits through pieces of PVC pipe. Pick which one you want to shoot through....then fire through the pipe. The pipe diameter is probably 4" to 6"...so not overly troublesome...but it causes some strange shooting postures.

A couple of "hunter's choice" shots. Some of the animals were illegal to hunt here...so if you shot them you lost mega points. i.e. you could set up a squirrel on a tree, a rabbit under a bush, and a big eagle that's practically a gimme. If you hit the eagle, you lose points.

As mentioned above....they hung a boar from a cable...and you had to shoot at it from 4 different points along the path (i.e. the boar is released 4 times with you at each position once). That was VERY popular...especially as the day went on and some people kept experimenting with better lube to get it moving faster. Range was pretty short with a ridge as a backstop.

Triggered targets. Shoot one...another pops up for 10 seconds...then drops out of sight again. If you get off 2 arrows you can score twice on the one shot.

Thick brush shots. They had a LOT of shots where you had to fire through twigs, leafy branches, tall grass, etc. to hit the target. You had to make out the vital area by making out the animal silhouette through the brush. Tricky shots.

One they tried...but it didn't work out was foam fish that were rigged to a little water wheel that sucked them under water periodically...then they'd pop up for a bit and back down. It was too much of a pain to reset the target after shooting...so they didn't do it after the second group went through....but it was a neat idea.

Evil ones include the steel boar, the rabbit in a brick wall (just enough bricks removed to fit the rabbit, floating gator in the lake, deer shot through about 3 dozen small trees (about 1.5" dia to 3" dia), turkey shot through cane/bamboo, and steel "shoulda known better" targets (like the eagle example above...but some were steel or cardboard. Steel if you weren't supposed to shoot it.)

Hope this helps.

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits" -- Albert Einstein

And if you didn't hit the target or refused to fire at it (either day...2 days) you got a 30 point penalty on your score.

Some people are just sick. There were 30 targets and 6 of them were arrow eaters if your shot didn't connect. Vital shot for big animals...or hit on small stuff like rabbits. One person I saw went through 8 arrows in 2 days...expensive shoot!

Wow, losing 30 points is kinda harsh. I like those shots though, you better be on your game before you release that arrow.

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I guess I shouldn't have titled this thread bonus shots, when really what I was looking for were just "fun" shots or "money" shots (no points added to your scorecard).

Don't have a bionic buck, so that one's out. Already talked about having a moving target (like the bear on the cable), but haven't decided how we're gonna do it yet. We're right on a lake, so we've also discussed a floating target.

The "two frogs on a beam" sounds interesting, but I'm not quite sure how it moves. Is it similar to a helicoptor's rotating blades?

We have a big grizzly and did a 65 yard 50/50 shoot for $1.00 per shot. The 12 ring won half the pot. Nobody hit it, so it carries over to the next shoot. I like pinning the money on there, but I don't know about a $100. Maybe a fifty.

The PVC shot sounds neat too, but how long is the pipe and where is it placed in relationship to the target and shooter?

The PVC shot sounds neat too, but how long is the pipe and where is it placed in relationship to the target and shooter?

The pipe was about a yard long...maybe a touch under, and it was close to the archer on day 1 (you could move around until you almost touch it with your stabilizer.....almost). That one made it LOOK a lot tougher than it was...except us tall guys had to shot white squatting to get low enough to shoot through (or move way back and pray).

The second day it was quite close to the rabbit and wasn't nearly as interesting, except for the longbow shooters. Closer to the archer definitely gets more interesting variations on form. Some even tried their portable chairs. The height was such that no one really had the luxury of walking up and firing. Tall had to squat...short had to tiptoe...and others in the middle had more trouble seeing the rabbit well because of the angle of the pipe.

It wasn't a very long shot...but it was on a fairly steep downhill grade (like rabbit was on a creek bank and you shot through the tube). Just play with it a bit and you'll figure out what works.

Another one they did was set up an out house that you had to sit down on and shoot. The trick was...the door was spring loaded and you weren't allowed to use an arrow to keep it open. You had to be seated to shoot and no part of your body was permitted to touch the ground outside the latrine. Target was about 15 yard cat...so small. Tough shot for some...seemingly easy for others. (no top on the latrine for safety.

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits" -- Albert Einstein

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